AstroPower Introduces New, Larger Solar Cells

AstroPower recently introduced a new line of eight-inch solar cells and power modules at the 16th Annual European Photovoltaic Conference and Exhibition. Dr. Allen M. Barnett, president and CEO, said the new solar cells, which are the largest and most powerful solar cells commercially available, lower the cost of solar electric power by capturing economies of scale in solar cell manufacturing, module assembly, and system installation.

The company introduced two, new eight-inch solar cell types. The AP-108 solar cell is a single crystal eight-inch round configuration, while the APx-208 is an eight-inch square APex product based on AstroPower's revolutionary Silicon-Film wafer process. Both new product types carry a nominal rating of 4.2 watts, and are used to make 150 watt power modules.

Barnett said the AP-108 and APx-208 generate about twice the power of a typical five-inch solar cell—currently the most widely used solar cell in the industry. Since many of the costs associated with the processing and handling of solar cells don't scale linearly with size, larger solar cells tend to be less expensive per watt of generated power. Prior to the introduction of the company's eight-inch solar cells, Barnett said the industry's largest and most powerful solar cell was AstroPower's AP-106, six-inch product.

"We believe that these new products will further reinforce the industry leadership position that AstroPower already holds as the supplier of the largest and most powerful solar cells on the market," said Peter Aschenbrenner, AstroPower's senior vice president of marketing and sales. "High-power solar cells and modules are particularly competitive in large-scale arrays where larger, more powerful modules significantly reduce installation cost."

Aschenbrenner and Barnett said AstroPower sees a rapidly increasing demand for large-scale solar arrays in Europe and the United States, primarily for "green power" generation programs driven by deregulation and customer choice. AstroPower is already shipping production volumes of its new AP-108 products, and plans to work with all of the company's key customers to develop products using the APx-208 APex solar cells. Shipment of those cells should begin later this year.

"AstroPower is once again leading the solar electric power industry in a shift to larger, more cost-effective solar cell configurations," Barnett said. "These new products embody two aspects of AstroPower's fundamental business strategy."

First, he said, AstroPower has consistently capitalized on the ability of its proprietary technology to produce the largest solar cells in the industry. Second, the company's culture of rapid innovation drives it to continuously strive for step-function cost/performance improvements beyond existing benchmarks, even when, as in this case, the state-of-the-art is defined by another AstroPower product.

Edited by April C. Murelio
editor@poweronline.com